Taiwanese software attracts interest from Japanese firm: developer

2012/05/15 22:11:46

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) Award-winning open-source software created by the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) has attracted the interest of a Japanese company willing to buy the rights to use its logo and name, the center said Tuesday.

Representatives from the two parties have recently signed a memorandum of understanding on the issue, and Steven Shiau, who developed the software, attended an announcement ceremony held in Tokyo that day, she added.

Takashi Kodama, president and CEO of Miracle Linux, was quoted as saying that he looks forward to the cooperation, which he said will benefit both sides.

The business model of this project, according to Kodama, will be the same as the Red Hat Enterprise Linux, whereby the company will provide consultation services for a fee, while the software itself will remain free.

However, the authorization for the sale of the logo and name requires to go through a legal process, as the NCHC is a government-funded institute, Wang said.

If the cooperation goes smoothly, it will be the first time the center has made a profit, according to Wang.

Developed in 2002, Clonezilla has been downloaded over 5.5 million times by users and developers in some 60 countries since it went public in 2004.

The open-source software has also been voluntarily translated into many languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese and German.